The present invention generally relates to network systems for remotely controlling a plurality of electric apparatus, and particularly to a network system suitable for use with home appliances.
Recently, most of the electric apparatuses (electrical appliances) used at home have functions for remote controlling so that they can be remotely controlled. However, in general, a particular remote controller is provided for each electric appliance. Therefore, the number of remote controllers is so increased as to be troublesome in their storage management, and that a lot of trouble is taken when a specific one is searched out from many remote controllers.
Thus, a system has been proposed that enables a single remote controller to be used in common to a plurality of electric appliances.
One example is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-11-098028 “Remote Controller Transmitter”. In this document, one common remote controller (remote controller transmitter) is provided to use for a plurality of electric appliances that employ the same remote controlling codes (here, ceiling lamps). This remote controller emits infrared light and visible light superimposed on each other toward each of the electric appliances in order to control them.
The infrared light to be emitted from the remote controller generally has a certain degree of spread. Thus, when the remote controller is only loosely directed toward an electric appliance to be controlled, this appliance can receive the infrared light. When the infrared light is transmitted over a certain degree of spread, however, the infrared-sensitive portions of more than at least two of a plurality of ceiling lamps, if installed relatively close to each other in a room, could receive the infrared light and thus be controlled at a time. Therefore, in this background art, the spread of the infrared light from the remote controller is restricted to be narrow (i.e., a directivity is given to the infrared), and at the same time the visible light that is also given a directivity (here, visible laser light) is emitted from the remote controller along the same light axis as the infrared in order that the appliance irradiated with the nonvisible infrared light can be found by the user.
The above conventional example uses the remote controller for a plurality of electric appliances sensitive to the same remote controlling codes. Another example disclosed in, for example, JP-A-11-136776 is a system capable of using a single remote controller common to a plurality of electric appliances that employ different remote controlling codes.
In this system, the remote controlling codes for the electric appliances are previously stored in the built-in memory of the remote controller, and one of the codes is selected for the desired appliance by operating the key input portion of the remote controller while the contents are being displayed on this remote controller. The remote controlling code for the desired appliance to be controlled is thus read from the memory, and the infrared light modulated with this remote controlling code is emitted. Consequently, after the above operations, the user directs this remote controller toward the infrared-sensitive portion of the appliance to be controlled, thereby controlling this apparatus.
Moreover, JP-A-09-238385 discloses a technique in which GUI (Graphic User Interface) of apparatus connected in a network manner is displayed on a screen such as TV screen, and controlled by a remote controller. In addition, JP-A-2001-036976 describes a technique in which operation buttons (GUI) are displayed on a remote controller, and selectively operated to control one of the apparatus connected in a network manner.